It is difficult to overstate the impact which video games have had during approximately the last decade. The remarkable technological advances which have given rise to video games, particularly those which may be played within the home, have created a phenomenon with few parallels. Video games provide a challenge to one's reflexes which is ever-changing and constantly amusing and entertaining.
For this reason, it is not surprising that many users of video games have become virtually addicted to them and play them for hours on end with little interruption. Indeed, in many localities there has been community opposition to arcade-type video games because adolesents (as well as younger children) play them for extended periods of time, spending significant amounts of money.
As a further matter, the advent of video games comes at a time when the sedentary aspect of the lives of many persons has been well recognized and seriously criticized. Hardly a week goes by without a new book being published on nutrition, exercise or some aspect of physical fitness and health. Indeed, it is almost a paradox of life in the 1980's that, while the need for physical exercise has become recognized, and as technology creates more free time for people, the very same technology has created video games which have had the effect of addicting their followers to spend hours upon hours with their eyes glued to a screen and using no muscles other than the few needed to operate a joystick by hand.
Over the years, various attempts have been made to in some way or other provide physical exercise along with visual stimulation or entertainment. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,893 issued to James H. Holmes, an exercise bicycle is linked to what is in effect an electrical generator which provides power to operate a television. Such a device simply forces the operator to tediously pedal away at a velocity sufficient to energize the television set. Nothing the operator does has any effect on the picture being watched, other than to have it go off if the operator goes to slowly or stops completely. Thus, there is clearly no involvement of the operator in the program being watched; nor does the apparatus place any demands on the reflexes and mental faculties of the operator.
In other prior art devices, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,335 in the name of Franklin S. Mallick and U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,732 in the name of Herbert J. Lane, an exercise device must be operated in a particular manner in order to permit operation of another device such as a television set. With systems such as these, the user must operate the equipment in a specified manner in order to activate a switch which then completes a circuit to permit operation of the "motivation" apparatus, such as a television or some other electrical device. Here again, as with the Holmes device described previously, there is no interaction between the operator and the motiviation device; either the operator does the exercise that is required and gets to watch the television, or fails to do so and does not get to watch the television. The challenge is purely physical; the reward is purely pedestrian.
Other prior devices are slightly more sophisticated. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,630 in the name of Conant H. Emmons, U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,095 in the name of Pierre A. LaPeyre and Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-159030, a motion display device such as a motion picture projector is operated at a speed which corresponds directly to the speed of the exercise equipment. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,630, the user rides a bicycle, and the speed at which time lapse motion pictures are shown is controlled directly in accordance with the speed in which the apparatus is used. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,095, the user runs on a treadmill, or operates a cycle or rowing machine, and a video display, corresponding to the type of exercise being performed, is shown on a video screen at a speed corresponding to the speed at which the treadmill, cycle or rowing apparatus is operated by the user. Thus, the video display is simple speeded up as the exercise equipment is operated at a faster rate and, conversely, is slowed down as the equipment is operated at a slower rate. In effect, devices such as these are only slightly less boring than operating a conventional exercise bicycle with a speedometer, in which the faster one goes, the more the needle on the speedometer moves. However, once again, there is no mental challenge or any test of one's reflexes. Such devices merely give the operator what amounts to a visual readout of how fast he is exercising.
Other exercise devices are believed to exist which employ a video screen adapted to show special programs which portray a character doing the same exercise that the operator is doing. For example, the operator may be riding an exercise bicycle, and the screen shows a character riding a bicycle. Such devices are essentially equivalent to the operator watching himself on a closed-circuit television screen or, indeed, in a mirror. There is no challenge other than the physical one. Furthermore, such devices are tied to the use of special programs and are not adapted for use to play the wide variety of existing video games which are presently on the market.
While all the aforesaid devices are useful for those who wish to exercise and to ascertain how hard they are exercising, none of these devices provide a challenge not only to raw physical ability, but to the mind and reflexes as well.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved recreation apparatus which challenges not only physical stamina and strength, but mental ability and reflexes as well.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus in which the challenge is constantly changing and in some way different each time the apparatus is used.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a recreation device which is sufficiently entertaining and challenging that it will promote the extensive use of such device and in turn foster further exercising by the operator.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which can be used in conjunction with a wide array of commercially available devices to provide a virtually unlimited menu of recreational programs.
Various other objects and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following detailed description of several exemplary embodiments thereof, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in conjunction with the claims appended hereto.